How Do You Price Your Crochet Work?
You’ve probably heard it said more than once “I can buy that for less at Big Box Store“. Yes, you can indeed buy a custom made piece at your local big box store but you’ll be supporting a low wage earner.
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There are no machines that I know of that can crochet. There are knitting machines which can make things faster but crochet? Nope. If it is crochet then it was made by a low income worker. You can buy hand crocheted items fromFair Trade and Fair Living Wage companies.
Companies like Krochet Kids hire women in desperate need of income, train them, and then buy the goods from them at a decent wage. Not only that, but they educate them on investing for the future and many are now business owners themselves.
Here’s one formula that was shared at Beyond Handmade:
Supplies + Time = Item Cost
Item Cost x 2.2 = Wholesale Price
Wholesale Price x 2.2 = Retail Price
I wrote a guest post “How Much Can You Get Paid Selling Crochet?” for Sedruola’s blog YarnObsession.com just before the release of her book “Pricing Crochet for Maximum Profit“.
I always under-priced my work when I was on Etsy. I only charged materials, shipping, taxes and fees. When I designed patterns for others I also undercharged often working in the negative.
What Are Other Companies Charging?
My advice to those looking to price their crocheted goods is to look around at shops, both high end and low end. What are they charging for similar items?
(c) Mr. Kim/ Barneys.com
Barney’s of New York – hand crochet and knitted hats run from $150 – $525; Golden Hook hats are hand knitted in France from Wool while the Elder Statesmen hat is crocheted in the USA and uses hand spun Cashmere yarn.
Gap – has knitted hats that run from $16 – $30 and are made from acrylic and are imported.
Does this mean you can’t make a profit from crocheting?
No, you just have to work your hobby like a business. Diversify your income streams and know what your particular market is willing to buy. You might have to rethink your worth.
Minimum wage is about $8.00 but did you know certain jobs have minimum wages that fall short of that? Back in 1993 when I was a Waitress in Missouri minimum wage for this job was at $2.00/hour while minimum wage at the time was $4.25/hour. I had to make the rest up in tips.
Migrant workers and piece workers get paid even less. Remember as a crocheter you are doing piece work and no piece worker that I know of gets minimum wage. They are paid by the pieces they make. i.e. my sister is a piece worker and she is paid just under .25 for each product she completes often making less than $1 an hour. Granted she is disabled but you’d have to produce 32 units to make minimum wage.
How do you price your crochet work? Do you have a special formula? Share in the comments below.
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Read More About Pricing Handmade Goods:
- Calculating the Price of Handmade Product via Yahoo S.L. Carroll (I don’t agree with her cost of yarn ($2.50/ball) nor do I think she prices her work adequately)
- The True Cost of Handmade by Somer Sherwood (a great read plus the follow up post)
- Pricing and Selling Your Crochet Items a Podcast by Stacey of FreshStitches.com
- How I Price My Handmade Crochet by Things Crafty (a reasonable formula)
- Crochet Me Forum – interesting thread about this topic and the realities of selling crochet
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I never thought about crochet being a piece work job. Thanks for that!
My pricing ‘formula’ is a mixture. Firstly, I accept that in business in general you make more profit on some items than you do on others. This means that in crochet business I will spend more time on some projects and take a smaller profit or even a small loss but make up for it with other projects that give me a greater profit.
Then I ask myself what I would pay for an item like this. I ask this before figuring my costs out so that it’s a fairly unbiased amount. Then I work out my costs (including my wage) and compare it to how much I would pay. If this is a good profit, Im happy. If not, I look at my expectations and see if my costs are ok.
Then I compare my costs and price with other items. I don’t find Etsy a very good comparison for selling crochet in my area so I rarely use that as a guide. I do ask friends I trust (other traders usually) what they would pay.
Hmm.. Looks like I’m gonna be writing a post of my own on this subject, lol.
Petra, I didn’t think of it that way either until I started following the work of Krochet Kids. They hire workers in Uganda to make their hats. I guess it is the same as paying someone per hat made.
Pricing crochet can get a little tricky as we feel that we shouldn’t charge what we are worth. We need to stop that because we are only hurting ourselves. As long as we under price our work we will never have thriving businesses.
Sedie of yarnobsession.com has a book on pricing crochet and various formulas you can use to get paid and have a profit.
Interesting blog
One of the woman’s homeless shelters down here in Atlanta loans out crochet needles and gives yarn away.
I’ve heard of programs similar to this. It helps heal people and it gives a sense of accomplishment when you complete a hat or scarf.
Want to buy crochet baby blanket don’t no how much to pay her.?
Kathy, here is a little price estimator that she can use http://craftscalculator.com. She can enter the hours she worked on your blanket, here expertise, as well as how much profit she’d like.